By KAREN KANGAS
Of the Emerald
On the wall next to Mary
Rothbart's desk is a picture of an
infant sitting in a patch of snow,
bundled in a quilted snowsuit. The
little fellow is gaping in toothless
wonder at white flakes drifting
down around him.
This child was one of the first
pre-test subjects in Rothbart’s re
search of infant temperament.
Rothbart, an assis
tant professor of psychology at the
University, has been studying in
fants' emotions for the past two
years. She recently received an
$87,094 grant from the U.S. Pub
lic Health Service to support her
research.
t “Mainly what we’ve been doing
in our research is exploring differ
ent possibilities for looking at indi
vidual differences in early be
havior patterns,” she explains.
These behavior patterns, col
lectively refered to as tempera
ment, include infants’ levels of ac
tivity and emotionality and reac
tions to novel and frustrating situa
tions.
Currently, very few good tech
niques haye been developed for
identifying infants’ individual dif
ferences in these behavior pat
terns, Rothbart says.
The reason for this, she exp
lains, is that infants are not readily
available for research from the
time they leave the hospital to the
time they enter nursery school.
“It’s only been in recent years
that people have spent a lot more
time and energy looking at infants
and their characteristics. I would
say that the study of infant charac
teristics is an area in child
psychology that is extremely im
portant,” the researcher says.
There are two reasons why this
research is important, she exp
lains. The research will help de
termine whether characteristics
evident at an early age persist to a
later age, and it may help in early
parent-infant interactions.
"Child rearing is an interactive
situation in which the child is a
very active participant," Rothbart
explains. “Parents should be
aware that there is a range of var
iability in children and that their
(the parents’) behavior is not
necessarily the cause of the vary
ing behavior in children.
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“The parents’ interaction with
the child is important in how the
child turns out, but the parent is
not responsible for everything,”
she says.
Rothbart is studying infants be
tween the ages of three and 12
months. “We’re beginning at a
time when we think differences in
characteristics might be starting to
show up,” she says.
In her research to date, Roth
bart has selected her subjects
from Eugene Register-Guard birth
announcements. She says the
sample of children studied reflects
the make-up of the Eugene
Springfield community — the ma
jority of the infants are white, but
they come from a variety of
socioeconomic backgrounds.
The actual study of the infants
has included one week of at
home-behavior observation by the
r
(Continued on Page 8A)
IFC decides
on pay limit
By ANNA HOYT
Of the Emerald
The Incidental Fee Committee (IFC) de
cided Wednesday night against a proposal
to standardize work-study pay allocations.
Instead they voted to have state minimum
wage and the maximum wage consistani
with other University work.
They also voted to include a job descrip
tion and a memo for recommendation for
work-study positions, stipulating that once
the work-study allocations are used up by
IFG-funded organizations, no more money
will be forthcoming.
After a heated argument which de
veloped over the Jewish Student Union’s
(JSU) plea for money to install a telephone
in its new office, the IFC voted to transfer
$50 from the JSU's postage allotment and
$76.75 from unallocated resources toward
installing a telephone line.
The argument was raised over whether
the $7000 in unallocated resources should
be left only for emergencies and the re
mainder added to next year’s budget. Dis
cussion also centered over what consti
tutes an “emergency”.
The committee later came to an agree
ment stating that "unallocated resources
will be used for emergency items such as
theft and unexpected deficits. In certain
rare cases, these funds will be allocated for
well justified and unique special events or
services. We fully expect a healthy balance
of unallocated reserves at the end of the
fiscal year.”
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